security guard

security officer

agent de sécurité

security supervisor

guard

Paladin

Keeping in mind I have not worked for the company for some time and my information may be out of date, having worked for Paladin Security for numerous years on several contracts, I continually felt as though the company had two major problems with its middle management.

Number one, the company underwent a cycle every two to three years where they would gut the existing management structure whether due to expansion or due to controversy.  In my opinion, they would bring in someone with limited or no security experience and who had their own impressions on what would make a good security officer.  These new managers would then go out of their way to lambast and impugn the existing structure and call into question "the way things were done", and would take examples of singular mistakes -- and there are mistakes in any business -- as if they were the norm rather than the exception.  Security is one of the few professions that deliberately and openly documents its own mistakes, and yet the business seemed to foster a culture that would punish harshly for admitting fault and accepting blame rather than covering things up.  Rarely would a new manager attempt to learn the current structure without prejudice and reserve their judgement for improvements until they had a good feel for how the employees behaved and why.  The middle management often seemed to believe that security was a paramilitary structure that required discipline and obedience without question or justification.  To couch it in military terms, the senior-rank enlisted officers who defended their employees and actions were simply ignored, and the commissioned officers dictated directly to the rank and file.  As a result, the rank and file often despised the middle management.

Similarly, although the corporate structure often hired from within the company, within the field it was much more unusual for an existing employee to reach the site management level than an outside hire.  Various barriers are in place to isolate promotions from within, such as a supervisor training course which is absolutely mandatory for promotions.  I passed the course with an extremely high grade and felt like I was never seriously considered for promotion, to put matters in perspective.  When I quit voluntarily, I was told that my departure was disappointing because they had had a plan for me -- which would have been wonderful had I been informed of it.  On the other hand, although the company does not like individuals who continuously do so, you may try out a contract and move to another if you do not feel completely happy with the placement you're in.  Due to regular turnover and expansion, transfer opportunities are plentiful, many of which can offer better pay.

Number two, the company would increasingly place demands upon its non-corporate employees without additional compensation.  Employees were not only asked to do overtime, they were expected to do so, and generally not compensated for brief periods of overtime (e.g., 15 minutes after your shift waiting for your relief officer, whom you are obligated by contract to wait for).  Employees are expected and required to arrive early for work and usually begin work early, without additional compensation.  Employees who were asked to work excessive hours would be told that they were letting the company down for refusing to sacrifice their own lives for the benefit of the company's bottom line.  Especially, numerous forms of contract-obligated certification were expected to be completed on the employees' own time -- health care, mobile patrol, etc. -- without compensation, until the employer eventually caved to pressure from the government, all the while feeling as though they did not owe the employees a single cent for doing so.  The company even created its so-called "Paladin University" for pre-employment (unpaid) training, demanding employees complete the online courses as a condition of employment, then marketing the completion statistics to prospective clients -- implying employees were voluntarily motivated to complete them.

With few exceptions, I have had no problems with the field officers nor with the upper management.  The officers do the best they can with the limited resources and pay that they have available, and the upper management strikes me as being cheerful and well-intentioned and merely spoiled by a poor signal-to-noise ratio from their middle management on how the field officers perceive the company.  Although there are sometimes officers hired who are unmotivated or incompatible, for the most part the work culture is quite enjoyable and employee friction is minimal.  Inter-office and intra-office gossip can be a problem, but you will otherwise feel as though you are friends with your co-workers.

Pay is competitive with other security companies -- which, as unskilled/semi-skilled workers, is of course not high.  As with any very large contract-based labour agency, there are of course exceptions where certain contract employees are highly underpaid and overworked, and vice versa.

This is a great job if you are looking for experience and a job to pay the bills, the contacts that the security company has are hospitals and NSLC. The shifts are 12 to 16 hours at length for hospital and 4 to 10 for NSLC shifts and also opportunity for special events such as port of wines and dragon boat festal being their main two .You have the opportunity to work with RCMP, Paramedics, Healthcare staff, Porters, ,Morgue workers, Kitchen staff, Mental Health, Mobile Crisis, Triage, Charge nurses, HRP, NSLC cashiers. Main goal of job is provide safety and security, access control, patient assists, verbal conflict resolution, and most of all Customer Service. No experience is needed to join company, no promotions are given to people with education, all employees treated as they don't know anything The security officer is paid the least amount the company can get away with which is a little more the minimum wage clients give company $25.00 for hospital security staff but company pays less because their contracted not union-ed. Many workers will ask pay but it is confidential as in any job, and workers believe security officers should be paid a reasonable rate for what security officers go through in a regular shift and hours put in.  The Security officers you meet on any site are great, awesome people to work with. Management is hard to talk to in for them and the hiring process is done by one person, work is passed on to other officers who don’t get paid to do set extra task, and growth of the company comes down to who you know and connections you have with management. Scheduler will call you for shifts more than 5 times a day even if your answer was no the first time. Paladin security is low staffed so they will use occupational needs and move you to different sites as you have no say if they pay and give you the same hours you normally should of had unless you get put on a NSLC shift then they will take money away, because they don't care for employees they are just pawns to be handed off to clients. Management will lie to your face and tell you if your shift ends that you must stay until someone relieves you or you will be punished, which is incorrect if you tell them that labor board will be called they will pretend nothing was said. Company will put blame on officers whenever possible and write written warnings, for anything. Step on the wrong foot or find out something that could put management in jeopardy you will be put on the no hire list. There is no complaint system in the company, any issues are brought up to one person in management and are normally thrown out. Promotions are given by decisions of person not experience or commitment to company. Evaluations are not given and recorded, there is no performance reviews unless it’s for something bad, or for a person with connections to management, record all conversations and get acceptance of shifts, contracts in writing  or by email and save it as management tend to lose, forget or take away shifts contacts or promotions, all training with paladin is paid by employee, training before hire is not paid, policy and procedures are changed regular to fit management needs, Uniform is to be picked up by guard even if you have no transportation and live outside the city, paychecks half the time will be incorrect and take weeks to get back to you, Vacation time is not told by management if your approved or not, but will pay 3 hours if you show up for shift and you’re supposed to be on vacation, . No paid Breaks. Overtime is never approved unless it’s the last option, do have the ability to ask for more money to come in a shift if they really need you but max they will pay out is $18.25 and possible $21.50 for special events. Vacation request need to be asked months before. No sick days. Benefits are given out to full time workers over 48 hours a week with expense of $13.40 each pay check paid by employee and only covered for 50% Medical, and Dentistry.

The company offers 1 to 2 weeks of training for new employees. But they ask for you to sign a contract where you either have to work full time for them for 6 months or part time for 9 months to ‘pay’ off some training certificates. This isn’t so bad as at least you are guaranteed a job. They also offer different areas of security to work in. I chose Healthcare Security for personal reasons. The pay is lower in hospital security so a lot of people who go with this choice are there for experience to become a cop or to go into corrections. The pay is above minimum wage only by a few dollars. You will always here this by other workers, “We don’t get paid enough for what we do”. 

The only way to make more money is to move up. Healthcare security is pretty dangerous in some ways - security is not allowed to use weapons or lethal techniques. You will get scratch marks, bite marks, possible broken bones, spit on, hair ripped out, slurs or feces thrown your way or maybe you will come out injury free - but every guard has at least gotten a slight or severe injury on at least one shift. In return, you gain valuable experience. You might be able to meet some cops and make connections, but it is hard to as they are on the job. The majority of the guards build networks while volunteering outside of work.

Depending on which hospital you go to, the work environment differs. Busier sites have interesting incidents, lots of running and fun co-workers. However, some sites have toxic work cultures where they prefer to gossip and back talk about others. If you don’t fit the style of the workers in a specific site, expect to be ousted from team bonding or even moving up. There also appears to be a lot of personality clashes as well. Teamwork is really important. Working independently may work for a few times, but majority of the time, you have to work with a partner or two. Some sites care about the safety of their officers, while others care more about their appearance of being a “hero” and taking on people by themselves (which is against company policy). You will also gain at least a day or two of hands on training for healthcare before you are posted at a hospital. But expect to learn the rest of the training live while on the job. In my opinion, this really makes it dangerous for people who are new to security. If you make a slight error in your posture/movement, this leads to you or others getting injured. 

Also, getting to know to know management is highly important as it can make or break for you in getting places. Some sites require you to flip your schedule every 2 weeks (morning to afternoon to graveyard). So it is hard to have a second job. But most sites will offer 40 hours and overtime pay. Breaks are decided by you, as calls are unpredictable. Some shifts can be busy, other days, very quiet. 

Out of 50 guards, only 1 or 2 are accepted into policing. Most go onto corrections, security related work or other professions. This job requires quick thinking, fast reaction and good communication skills. In the end, the door is always turning in healthcare security. You don’t have to be a fit person to work at most sites, but you need to be at least confident. 

The worst part about the job is the salary compared to the responsibility required of you.  But that's the way it goes with private security companies.  Some days it feels like you're employed as very highly-trained security officers, other times it feels like you're expensive cannon-fodder with a tonne of responsibilities that amount to little more than mind-numbing busywork.

Your experience with Paladin Security may vary - it really all depends on which detachment you're hired on with.  Some areas offer great compensation, excellent work/life balance and have great management who treat their employees with respect.  The right detachment, the right site really makes a difference.  Others?  The difference is like day and night.  And don't expect to make much more than minimum wage, despite the distressing claim that they provide some of the best wages in the industry.  In my current position, I made more money bagging groceries.  The responsibility placed upon security guards in some locations is already pretty intense - add to that all of the responsibility of a supervisor and you have a job that asks for far more than it gives.  For new guards, for new supervisors, it's easy to become jaded and that results in a high turnover rate.

Get hired onto a good site and you're suddenly constantly worried about getting kicked from it.  It doesn't matter that there's a union, it doesn't matter if you have years of experience - if the client doesn't like you, if the client doesn't like something that you did, you're removed from the site.  The company won't risk losing the contract, especially some of their higher-profile contracts.  A lot of the time - yeah, there are guards that need to be kicked, but we've lost some pretty good people that way.

Paladin Security does offer more training for its uniformed guards than I've seen other companies offer.  It's a refreshing change from companies that require that you have a cell phone and a car and then shove you at a site for a 12 hour midnight shift, only checking up on you to see if there's still a pulse.  However, this could be your position, depending on the detachment.  Depending on the site, management actually checks to ensure that you're actually learning and utilizing what you've been trained as well.

The best endorsement that I could give this company is that it's a good stepping-stone to a career in law enforcement.  My current position allows me to work with people from all different walks of life, sometimes on good days, sometimes on bad days.  It allows me to work with trainees and help guards that need assistance.  Do the job well and you're rewarded with a good pat-on-the-back and a letter of commendation that looks nice on the wall and on a resume.  Look at what you actually want out of the job and go for it.  Do the job well and you can definitely move on to bigger and better.

I worked for Paladin for just 3 months. I applied, and the next day was called in for an interview. The interview for the most part was pretty standard, the one standout portion of it was I was given a written test that tested for things such as English language skills and basic knowledge of the Security Industry. However, the test can be passed by a 5 year old.

I will give Paladin a + for their mandatory training they claim all guards are required to go through. The training lasted about 5 days, and consisted of general orientation to the company, working in the Healthcare Industry, and some other specific training. A lot of the training consists of industry recognized certificates that can be used for other jobs. The downside to the training, is that you are required to attend their training sessions at their Burnaby office (for someone who lives outside the Metro Vancouver area this can be a pain) the kicker, you are NOT paid while attending this training. So you're doing 5 full days of training, and not getting any money for it. I don't know if they've since changed this however, but beware.

I was posted to a hospital in the Fraser Valley as a part-time guard, my consistent hours per week were 32. No benefits were offered to part-time guards. 

I raised a safety concern, one that even WorkSafe BC agreed with, and the result was me being dismissed from my job. This was all the result of a Site Manager left to do his own thing without any upper management intervening and coming up with a solution that worked for everyone. Their reaction was to immediately terminate me instead. Paladin has such a high turnover for guards and their company is just a revolving door for guards. They'll say it's a result of them just wanting to hire and retain the very best of the industry.

The pay at the site was a joke, your expectation as a Healthcare Security Officer is to actually physically protect staff, patients, and guests and we were paid $13/hr, no benefits. and no PPE offered (at my site) 

In conclusion, Paladin will play themselves up as an industry leader and one of the best companies to work for. The fact of the matter is, you are expendable the second you voice an opinion or concern, or make any small mistakes. MY experience, of course comes from the 1 manager that threw me under the bus, and the rest of the management team that offered no explanations or proper mediation.

Honestly I really love where I work,and that's probably why it's so hard to be finally calling it quits at Paladin soon. Working in the healthcare environment is a tough environment and not for all, I understand that. But it is an exciting work mix for me and it has worked for years now for me. It would be helpful if we felt like we actually had managnent that cared about us and not just the profit they make from us.

That being said the pay is definitely not enough. I've been bitten, scratched, punched, and hit by patients all in the course of my job. All of that with compensation that keeps shrinking as time goes on because Paladin doesn't increase salaries with inflation.

Management is poor too. You rarely see them visit the site, or understand what the work environment is, more often than not an email is sent out in response to a situation that they don't understand the intricacies to. And if you do send management an email correcting or informing them of the situation you get an email back stating that your tone is inappropriate, treating you like a toddler asking their parents a question they don't like.

Because of this and many other issues this is causing us to run short staffed. A shift that is supposed to have 10 guards on may only have half that, turning what can be a stressful day into a nightmarish backlog of stacked calls and angry clinical staff as you try to balance the needs of the hospital to your dwindling resources. 

A lot of guards are leaving or are planning on leaving because of the mess being created by managnent.

This is also leaving a lot of inexperienced guards (who are horribly under trained by paladin) in situations they aren't prepared to handle increasing injuries further.

Also training is a mess. New guard training is horrible now. When I started it was a 40 hour course. To be fair back then it needed work but has gotten even worse and new guards are being set up for failure causing even higher turnover.

Something needs to change. I'm not sure if it's a branch problem or something higher up in the corporate ladder but there's something cancerous that needs to be removed soon.

To those still reading this, don't apply. There's plenty of other jobs out there that pay as good or better. There's plenty that can get you experience for a future law enforcement career. And jobs where you're appreciated more, and less likely to come home incredibly stressed and/or injured. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
A larger company allows further expierence in different security types/roles. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
If your looking for work to be on your phone, not care about your employer, clients and their clients and you want to feel like another number  then it's the perfect place to be. Don't forget theirs no training which is no problem. Toxic culture, cliquey and most managers and will always side with the client every time. If you want a bad work/life balance then it's a perfect employer for you. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Incredibly toxic, condescending, non communicative with poor organization and cliqueyness. Constant high turnover. Bare minimum training and very fake. Expect to use your own personel mobile phone for work without compensation. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Ask office for site specifics in email. Ask what accomodations they have onsite.. ie: personal property, charge your phone, sit down, washroom. Check google maps to have an idea of area and dress/uniform for the weather. Work alone onsite. Ask questions to get an idea of what your getting into. 
Arrive to site, Clock in for shift, set up legal note pad, any reports required at the start, during and end of shift. Expect to not get breaks as but working breaks requiring you to be available if needed. Work hard to keep as much negative attention from the office from myself while onsite by following all guidelines , procedures and protocols the best I can. Work alone on shift and not in a team as most guards get away with striving to find the bottom and do less the least amount neccassary. Work towards creating and maintaining a positive client rapport as they'll be your co workers persay. 
Be prepared to always work hard to cover your tracks with the Paladin Security feeling untrustable. Hourly safety checkins over a automated software phone system. Expect to be put in dangerous situations where training offered doesn't always help. Expect to think of many situations to cover yourself so your prepared as the company doesn't offer much information when deploying you. Expect to prepare yourself to work at any time of day in any weather indoors and out.

Inasmuch as there will be folks who discount my review as "self-serving" and "invalid", I see extreme validity in management providing perspective, both to Executive and the broader employable public.

I've worked for Paladin for the past seven years and there have been occasional "downs" mixed in with mostly incredible "ups".  The Company itself has seen incredible growth over the past five years, both in my market and nationally...this speaks not to incredible business acumen, which has an impact, albeit minor in my opinion; but more to WHO we are as a Company.  The internal culture here is why we are successful, the way we treat all of our staff, and what we value on a day to day basis.

We recently held an appreciation event for all of our staff who had been with our Branch for over 5 years.  106 people, roughly 10% of our total group, were still with us after 5 years.  In an industry where the average attrition horizon is 120 days; in one that  has 30-35% annual turnover, that's an unbelievable statistic.  

The bottom line is, all companies vie for the best available employees in the market.  

The companies that are successful are the ones who excel in recruiting, developing, supporting, and promoting their people.  They are the companies who never forget that it is truly about their people.

Paladin provides the best support and security programs that I've ever seen in the business.  I'm acutely aware of what our competitors bring to the table in terms of a glossy prospectus and annual reports.  

I'm also acutely aware of the fact that I am regularly hiring, retaining, and promoting their brightest and best security staff; usually after they have given the competition a three to six month field test.

I am completely serious when I say that we want to see folks who want to work, are willing to learn, and have a strong sense of pride in their day to day accomplishments.   These are the people who fit with our culture at Paladin, and these are the people who we develop, retain, and promote.

Don't put me at the top of your list, put me at the bottom and make me work for it. Then, and only then, will you understand my commitment.

To start off, I received a voicemail from their HR to call them back for an interview. I called back within 2 minutes of receiving that VM and they didn't pick up, called 2 more times that day, 5 times the next, 3 the next day. Then stopped as I assumed they found someone else.


3 days later got a call back, asked me to come in for an interview for the position I applied for. I get there, and it seems I'm quite qualified for the position, BUT 90% of the way through the interview she informs me that the position I applied for has been filled. But another, more far away, less hours position was available. Complete idiocy not to inform me of that over the phone prior to making me come to their offices. I would have very likely received the position had she answered her dang phone. Incredibly infuriating. Pay was a dollar over minimum, even with multi year supervisor experience. Non-negotiable, even though they ask you what pay rate you're expecting.  

 If you DO accept a job offer from the, they make you do multi day training that is NOT paid for at their office. No they don't care if it's too far for you, no they wont attempt to help you get there. By pure chance, I lived near by, others in my class were not so lucky.

The supervisor who trained me had over 30 years experience in security, but was "removed' (not fired, they make that clear so you don't get EI)  within a month. 

I often got emails which detailed long time members were no longer working and were "exploring other opportunities within Paladin" which is just a nice way of saying they no longer work here. 

As a new employee I asked every employee that had been working at Paladin what their thoughts were. They said either to look for a job somewhere else as soon as I can, or they said that Paladin is on track to lose the contract and can't wait for a new company to hire them. 


The atmosphere is extremely toxic, mostly from Conestoga college 'security reps' which are incredibly passive aggressive, on my first day I could not believe how the client's staff treated other paladin guards. 

You are always on camera, and teamleaders will call you and be passive aggressive if you do anything wrong whatsoever. I once got a call for being late because the other guard was on a patrol, and couldn't let me into the building. 

Run as far away as you can.

I’ve been working at Paladin as a healthcare security officer at a major hospital site. When I started, the job was fulfilling, the team was tight-knit, and I actually looked forward to coming into work. That all changed in March 2024 with the arrival of a new Area Security Lead (ASL).

Since his arrival, morale has plummeted, turnover has skyrocketed, and the workplace culture has deteriorated beyond recognition. Nearly the entire experienced team either quit or switched to casual status within months of his leadership. Today, only two of us from the original team remain—and both of us are planning to leave by fall.

The ASL is the textbook definition of toxic leadership. He rules from behind a keyboard, avoids real conversation, and issues warnings like candy—rarely offering guidance, support, or even basic human decency. Favoritism is blatant. Some people get instant leave approvals (even when it causes overtime), while the rest of us are denied days off unless we find our own replacements, who also can't be on OT. If not, tough luck.

What’s worse is the lack of responsiveness. Book-off requests go unanswered for weeks, only to be denied days before the shift. It’s disorganized, disrespectful, and completely demoralizing.

This kind of management style is unsustainable. Paladin used to be a place where officers took pride in their work. Now, under this ASL, it’s just a revolving door of burned-out, disrespected employees.

If head office is reading this, take note: the problem isn’t your officers. It’s your leadership.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Security guard 21 salaries reported	$19.78 per hour
Security officer 15 salaries reported	$20.52 per hour
Agent de sécurité 224 salaries reported	$20.77 per hour
Security supervisor 1 salary reported	$23.72 per hour
Guard 3 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour

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